Tough time for Eurotunnel
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• Eurotunnel faces almost insurmountable odds if it is to meet the freight-carrying forecasts it used to renegotiate the £700m rescue package agreed with major banks last autumn, warn City analysts.
They calculate that Eurotunnel will have to carry 70,000 trucks every month— more than three times the 23,000 it carried in what it claimed was a record-breaking April if it is to meet this year's target of 650,000 trucks.
Analysts were commenting on reports that the banks were considering giving Eurotunnel an "interest holiday" on its debts.
"How freight traffic can be described as ahead of expectation defeats me," says UBS analyst Matthew O'Keefe. With competition from the ferries hotting up, Eurotunnel refuses to say if it has plans to attract more trucks.
But analysts do not believe that Eurotunnel's 200 bankers would let the company go bankrupt, even, as seems likely, if this summer's figures fail to meet budget. They could swap some of its annual .£720m interest payments for shares.